Time To Mind Our Own Business

What’s with the outrage on Raheel Khursheed’s recent appointment at Twitter and Ashutosh joining AAP?

WrittenBy:Somi Das
Date:
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Co-authored by Rajyasree Sen

Did Twitter India or Raheel Khursheed expect the outrage that broke out on Twitter following the announcement of Khursheed’s appointment as Head of News, Politics and Governance of Twitter India? We’d guess not. First, the facts. Thirty-year old RaheelKhursheed who has worked at two global PR agencies, CNN-IBN, Times Now and was heading change.org has now joined Twitter India. He is NOT the Twitter India Chief as the ill-informed seem to think. That position is held by RS Jaitly. Khursheed has been openly critical of the Bharatiya Janata Party government and on Twitter prior to him joining Twitter India.

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Basically, he needs to get more people on Twitter while encouraging political leaders, political parties and news personalities on and having conversations around them.

Strident voices on Twitter have been asking for Khursheed to be sacked.

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We spoke to @India_MSM, who tweets about news on Indian media. Explaining the reason for his ire, he told us, “The first problem that I have with this hiring is his job profile clearly states that he would be providing front-line technical support to users and escalating issues to internal support. This means that he would have access to our Direct Messages. He would be the interface between the Indian user and the server. Earlier, no one in India had access to the direct messages on Twitter. He would be able to see my email id and if I decide to put my phone number while opening my account, he would have access to that too”.

However, he was not able explain how or why Khursheed would be reading his Direct Messages and how he was so sure that no one was reading them before Khursheed’s appointment.

We then spoke with Kanchan Gupta, Editorial Director – Niticentral.com to understand the reason behind his dismay at Khrusheed’s appointment. According to him, “Being a private entity, Twitter has the right to hire whoever it wants to for whichever job within the organisation. However, Twitter being a public platform for free exchange of views is open to scrutiny. It is not like Infosys hiring someone. For argument’s sake, if Google were to hire, say, a spy chief, would the hiring not be questioned? He or she may be brimming with ideas and have the required skill sets but given the profile as an individual, such an appointment bygoogle would be under scrutiny”. He also questioned the need for Twitter venturing into connecting with politicians and those in the government. “As a Twitter user, I am uncomfortable with the idea of the platform having a head of politics and government. What does Twitter have to do with politics and government. Does Twitter have similar posts in other countries? And if it engages with politicians and has something to do with government, can it be called a free and open platform?” Gupta is one of the Twitter users whose Twitter account had been blocked by the government in 2012 “with the help of internet service providers (ISPs) and not Twitter”.

As an aside, most MNCs and social media platforms DO have an advocacy and public policy division. Not having one would be surprising in fact. The only difference is the nomenclature. Some call it Public Policy and Strategic Affairs, others call it Public Affairs and others call it Government Relations.

Nilanjana Roy, author had this to say on the matter on NDTV’s The Social Network, “Khursheed is an equal opportunity criticiser. He’s criticised AAP, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress. The point is that the right-wing doesn’t want neutrality. They are scared that Twitter will take action on anonymous accounts which troll people”.

The BJP, however, has been very cautious in reacting to the developments. It has refrained from making any direct comment against either Khursheed or against Twitter India. Arvind Gupta, National Head of BJP’s IT Cell told Newslaundry, “Why should I comment on their internal matter? Twitter can hire anyone they like. Having said that I only wish that Twitter has been a global leader in promoting self expression and I hope it continues to be so”.

Twitter, for those not in the know, does NOT disseminate news of its own, nor is it a news site. It IS a social networking site. Ergo, Khursheed will have no editorial or censorship powers, contrary to if he had joined a publication or news channel as head of news, politics and governance. Whether Khursheed’s personal political opinions will hamper his conversations with the right-wing or not, is something for Twitter India and him to find out and deal with. A risk they’re obviously willing to take. This is the horse Twitter India has decided to back and the debacle or success of this recruitment is of relevance to only them.

Speaking of someone with political views being part of a news organisation, yesterday news channels and social media sites were abuzz with the news of IBN 7’s Managing Editor, Ashutosh resigning to join the Aam Aadmi Party. As in Khursheed’s case, Ashutosh’s political stance and slant was always clear. In his own words, he has always been “positively inclined towards AAP”. But did his joining the political party mean that he needed to quit journalism? Would his political association hamper his journalistic and editorial decisions as the editor of IBN 7?

According to Ashutosh, “I quit from my position as I wanted to give politics my 100 per cent. There are people who have joined politics and also involved in the news business. But I feel both journalism and politics require huge involvement and both cannot be done at the same time. I advise any one jumping into either politics or journalism to jump in with body and soul”.

The question is – has he ever faced any conflict because of his political leanings while performing his duty as an editor? “There is no problem in being sympathetic towards a certain political ideology. There are several editors who are left-leaning. Again, there are editors who are right-leaning. There is no problem as long as your readers and viewers are aware of your political stance. I think there is no editorial conflict when it comes to your job as an editor and having a personal political stance. However, when it is needed, as a journalist one must be critical of the ideology they are sympathetic towards.”

One of the best examples of a journalist doing so is political commentator, Bill O’Reilly who is known for his right-wing views. The Daily Beast had published a critique of Bill O’Reilly’s stance on various issues and how despite his political beliefs he had swung with public opinion and been as objective as possible. To quote – “O’Reilly evolves with the public, singling out the extreme left for ridicule while taking care not to challenge liberal views that have become mainstream. He vociferously supported invading Iraq, but unlike many right-wing intellectuals and former Bush officials, apologised for doing so once Americans turned against the war. He then blamed the Bush administration for screwing things up; blamed Iraqis themselves, whom he called ‘primitive’ and ‘prehistoric’; and continued to slam ‘the anti-war crew’, which ‘is now fully invested in defeat’. In other words, he disassociated his trademark hypernationalism, which remained popular, from the ‘neoconservative’ project of militarily transforming the Middle East, which no longer was”.

Madhu Trehan, Editor-In-Chief of Newslaundry agrees that it is important that journalists who are associated with any political party should “fully disclose” their political stance. While speaking about whether her partner and Newslaundry’s Managing Editor AbhinandanSekhri’s association with AAP poses any editorial problem, she said, “No, it(Sekhri’s association with AAP) doesn’t make me uncomfortable. When a journalist declares his political leanings, he has made full disclosure. If anything HE has to be more careful that he never uses the organisation to further his political ends. That would be unacceptable. It has not happened so far. What about the majority and more dangerous kind – the ones who do not declare their political leanings or affiliations and underhandedly use the news organisation with slanted stories, ignoring stories or planting stories and nobody is any wiser to what they have done?”

However, she adds that complete objectivity is a Utopian concept. “Most news organisations have their preferred political stance and readers are aware of it. Which news organisation is neutral and completely objective? Personal tastes and leanings do come in to play. Such as, stories on children move me and I would choose to cover those than cruelty to animals, which don’t move me. So there is no such thing as complete objectivity.”

The Twitterati have begun questioning Ashutosh’s body of work even after he has quit, with as much vociferousness as they are protesting Raheel’s views on Modi and Kashmir.

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Questioning and assessing whether editorial integrity and objectivity has been compromised based on one’s political beliefs, is still understandable. No one wants an editor to indulge in gate-keeping or censorship based on their personal political views. Although, we can think of at least a handful of online sites and mainline publications and news channels doing so. But where is the sense in questioning corporate recruitment and internal HR policies? Perhaps now is the time for Twitter to issue a statement – even if it’s simply to tell the Twitterati to put up or shut up.

(We contacted Raheel Khursheed and also tried to contact Twitter India chief Rishi Jaitly but got no response.) 

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